America's Job Exchange 123

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Another question that our sales team says they get a lot from employers is “How often should I post my jobs?” or “How long should I leave a job up?” Well, in short, the answer is as long as it takes to find the right candidate. If after a month you haven’t found the person you’re looking for, then re-post. If you didn’t find the right person because you were getting all kinds of unqualified candidates, then you might want to consider re-writing your job description to attract the right people. Check out our recent post on how to write an effective job description. Most job boards, including America’s Job Exchange, run jobs for a default of 30 days, and many employee searches take longer than that. Keep the job up as long as you’re looking. You never know who the next person to apply will be.

But what if you find the right person, and you’ve still got time left on your job? Many employees decide to remove their postings once they’ve filled the job. Remember, though, you’ve paid for all 30 days. Why not leave the job up? You’ll continue collecting resumes for your database in case you have another position open up. And don’t forget that a certain percentage of new hires don’t make it past the first 30 days. If you’ve kept the job up through the end of your 30 days, then you’ve got more resumes to explore when you start the search again.

-The ideas in this post were suggested by our sales team. If you’ve got any questions about writing job descriptions for America’s Job Exchange, give them a call!
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Posted by Jean Levasseur

Many employers underestimate the value of an effective job description, especially when written for the internet.  However, the job description is your first contact with a potential employee, and is where you convince them that you are the perfect company to work for.  A well-written and planned job description can also reduce the unqualified candidates that you get, because people will understand exactly what the job entails and whether they fit that mold.

Before you write a word, sit down with the department manager and decide exactly what you want from a future employee.  Jot down job responsibilities, role in the company hierarchy, etc.  Once you’ve done that, then you can start writing.

The first part of your description is the Job Title, which should also serve as your Job Description Title.  Be specific, and try to stick to accepted titles that people will know and recognize.  For example, “Direct of Web Development” instead of “A person to run our website.”  You might want to include a phrase about the type of company in the title.  So “Director of Web Development for an Online Job Board.”  Your title is first contact with a potential employee; make it eye-catching and as relevant as you can.

The first paragraph should be a high level overview of both the company and the position.  Even if you want the company name confidential, say what it is that you do.  You also need to give an overview of the position, preferably a one sentence elevator pitch.

The next section should go into the specifics of the job.  This usually works best as a bulleted list of short, concise, specific tasks that the person will be expected to perform.  Start these with a present tense verb (“Develops landing pages to enhance SEO”).  Order them by importance, and don’t include anything that won’t take at least 5% of their time.

The next step is to list the employee requirements, which is important to weeding out candidates.  Make sure to include things like required education, work experience, computer skills, industry experience, etc.  Feel free to list “preferred” skills as well.

Last, include a blurb about the company and culture.  This is a place where you can really attract the right person, and you should really let the personality of your company shine through.

The key to a quality job posting is to write the job description so to attract the most applicants.  It is the employer’s job to sell their company to employees so they apply. Put a little time and effort in the posting up front,  it will only create better results on the back end.

-Many of the ideas in this post were suggested by our sales team.  If you’ve got any questions about writing job descriptions for America’s Job Exchange, give them a call!

1-866-923-6284

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Once again, in the month of April, America’s Job Exchange was listed by Daype as one of the top 15 online US job search websites.  We’re ranked at spot 12 again, but we hope that with a number of new partnerships and online initiatives that are being launched, we’ll be able to move up that list fairly quickly.  Here’s the full list of the top 15.

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Once again, America’s Job Exchange has made Daype’s list of top 15 online job search boards, with 650,000+ monthly visitors (based on information from Compete.com.  We’re still ranked at number 12, and hope that many of our new partnerships and initiatives will help us climb the list in months to come!

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Another blog for you employers out there.  I spoke with our sales team yesterday, and asked them what sorts of recurring questions they’ve been getting from people interested in posting a job on America’s Job Exchange.  One of the most commonly asked questions was “How often should we re-post jobs?”

Well, the answer, on the surface, is pretty simple: until you find a superstar candidate.  However, as you re-post, you might want to consider rewriting your post to clarify the job more, so that people really know what they’re getting into.  If you find yourself with a lot of unqualified candidates to wade through, then the problem might be that you haven’t made your expectations clear enough.  If you’re not getting as many responses as you might like, you might need to adjust your keywords and title to be more engaging.  But keep posting until you’ve found the right person.

Also, if you do find the right person, and you’ve still got time left on your job posting, then don’t take it down!  Keep the post up there so that you can continue collecting resumes.  There are two reasons for this.  First, if you ever are hiring for a similar job, then this gives you a base of candidates to start looking through.  Second, a surprisingly high percentage of candidates don’t make it pas the first 30 days.  If you have to let go your first choice, then it is great to have a collection of candidates you know are interested and available to look through.

We’ll have another post for all of you employers out there about how to write an effective job description, but for now, keep posting!  The next response might be the right one.

In the meantime, you can always contact our friendly neighborhood Sales Team with any further questions about your employee search.  1-866-923-6284

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Here are some upcoming Job Fairs in the San Diego Area:
5/13: Palomar College
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. San Diego

5/15: Community Job and Resource Fair
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. San Diego

5/21: RecruitMilitary Career Fair
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. San Diego

5/21: Golden Future Careers Career Fair
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. San Diego
5/27: Paradise Valley Hospital Career Fair

5/28: DICE – Technology, Engineering, and Security Clearance Career Fair
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. San Diego

If you know of any other San Diego Job Fairs, please let us know!

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Today’s Daily Jobs from America’s Job Exchange are coming from the west coast: San Diego, California.  I’ve been there a few times, love that town.  There’s so much to see and do, but you can’t do much of it if you don’t have an income of some kind.  So let’s try to help some people out with finding a job in San Diego!  Right now, the San Diego Unemployment rate is 9.3%.  Far too high.  And as always, if you don’t find what you’re looking for here, then do your own search on America’s Job Exchange!

Engineering Job in San Diego: Water Resources Engineer for Tetra Tech in San Diego, CA

Media Job in San Diego: On Air Personality for CBS Radio in San Diego, CA

Finance Job in San Diego: Commercial Banker for California Bank & Trust in San Diego, CA

Security Job in San Diego: Security Officer for Allied Barton Security Services in San Diego, CA

Computer Job in San Diego: Software Systems Engineer for SAIC in San Diego, CA

Construction Job in San Diego: Tunneling Project Manager for Sequence Systems in San Diego, CA

Fishing Job in San Diego: Skilled Fisherman needed for the Department of Commerce in San Diego, CA

Healthcare Job in San Diego: Medical Assistant for QTC Management, Inc in Chula Vista, CA

Legal Job in San Diego: Paralegal Job in Environmental Law firm Sempra Energy in San Diego, CA

Sales Job in San Diego: Lead Generation Representative for Websense in San Diego, CA

Posted by Jean Levasseur

Well, as we all know, the unemployment numbers aren’t all that good, though the job losses in April were apparently less than expected, which might mean good things for the not too distant future.  We “only” lost 539,000, which is 66,000 less than last month.  A step in the right direction.

So I asked a question a few weeks ago about what industries, if any, are actually increasing the number of jobs.  I posited that green industries would start to become a large employer, but in the short term, I think I’ve found an answer.  Apparently since January, the healthcare industry has gained 17,000 jobs per months, many for nurses.  Now, this is down from their usual 30,000 per month, but hey, it’s an industry that’s doing comparatively well.  Also, apparently the government is doing some serious hiring in preparation for the 2010 census.

Posted by Jean Levasseur

There’s no question about it; when you’re looking for a job, you’re very interested in what the potential salary will be.  After all, that’s one of the major reasons that you’re looking for a job.  However, you have to remember when you’re interviewing that:

A. The employer is less interested in what to pay you than they are in whether they should pay you.

B.  The goal of interviewing is not to negotiate a salary; it’s to get a job offer.

As a general rule, you want to avoid being the one to bring up the salary question, and you absolutely shouldn’t bring it up during the first interview.  By bringing up the question of salary in the first interview, you are saying that you care more about the salary than you do about working for the company.  Even if that’s true, that is not the impression that you want to send.  So just sit back, answer their questions, make sure that you talk about how you’ll benefit the company, and wait for them to bring up the salary.

When it is finally time to talk money (preferably after the employer has brought it up), you want to avoid throwing out a hard number first.  By making the first move, the salary negotiations become them trying to talk you down.  When they make the first move, the salary negotiations can be you talking them up.  A good strategy to follow if asked what you expect to make is to say your current or last salary.  This gives them a feel for the general ballpark you’re looking for, but doesn’t lock you into anything.  You can also ask questions like what do you feel someone with my experience is worth, or what did you have budgeted for this position?

And remember.  We’re in the midst of a recession.  Companies can’t necessarily afford the salaries they could a few years ago.  Many of them are lucky to be hiring at all, so be patient and don’t negotiate so hard that you scare them off.  You can always ask for a raise later.

Posted by Jean Levasseur

As has become my new addition to daily jobs, here are a few job fairs that are happening in the Nashville area in the next 6 months.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any in the very near future.  Please let me know if there are any that I’m missing.

July 22, 2009 Nashville Career Fair

September 23, 2009: Nashville Job Fair

November 4, 2009: Nashville Career Fair

And of course, if there are any employers hiring in Nashville, these career fairs are a great thing to check out.